


A Life After Death

by TorWithoutAnH



Category: Black Sails
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-04
Updated: 2016-12-04
Packaged: 2018-09-06 12:14:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8750464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TorWithoutAnH/pseuds/TorWithoutAnH
Summary: Vignettes through the years after the war, centering on James, John, and Madi and the life they build together. This fic will probably ignore S4. SilverFlint established relationship. Rating will change and tags will be added as the story unfolds.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This will mostly be a story about hope, love, and family. Each chapter will be a separate point in time and, because I'm not over fond of angst or cliffhangers, will always end with something nice.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The war to liberate Nassau is recently won. James has taken victory as his cue to retire from piracy. John is still trying to understand his decision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This short chapter is really just the introduction to the story, which I decided to post as a preview while I'm still working on the first major chapter. Madi does not actually appear yet, but she will be as much a principal character as James and John in the story overall.

"So that's it? All those years of bloodshed and now the dread Captain Flint is just done?"

James didn't even look up as he stuffed the cork back in a bottle of rum. "My ship is in pieces at the bottom of the bay."

"You could get another ship. It's not as if you were born with the deck of the Walrus beneath your feet!"

"You know well that the deck of the Walrus is exactly where Captain Flint was born. And he is no longer needed now that Nassau is free."

"For now. What if Nassau should return to the Empire?"

At last James turned his head to stare his partner in the eye. "If Nassau returns to the Empire it will be by the choice of its own people. Let them choose their own freedom, and let me choose mine!"  
  
John sighed. The argument was far from new, the sticky, tiresome heat of the day was finally being lightened by a breeze, and John was ready to concede defeat. For now. He watched as James uncorked the bottle again and took a long drink from it. The former captain sat slumped in the shade of the back wall of their cabin on Maroon Island, dressed only in his trousers, and John was struck, suddenly, by the realization that never until coming here, after the war, had he ever witnessed James relax so much into his surroundings. If he could really find peace here, John could hardly begrudge him that, though he was fairly sure peace of mind was rarely accompanied by heavy drinking in daylight hours.

Carefully John lowered himself to the ground next to James. "It was always a burden on you, wasn't it? Being Flint?"

A moment passed in silence. Then James sighed heavily. "I can't be Flint. Not anymore. There's not enough of him left in me." The bone-deep weariness he had kept locked inside for years seemed to rush out, suddenly fierce with desperation for release. "Don't you see? I have to give this up. I cannot go back to being Flint, just as I can never go back to being James McGraw!"

There was a hint of fear in his eyes, John noticed. Fear of... rejection? An uncertain future? Being left alone and adrift once more?

"I know." John rested a hand on his thigh, squeezing gently. "I know."

They sat together in silence for some time, James drinking and John idly caressing his thigh. God help him, John loved this wreck of a man, and he would forsake all the riches in the world if only to see him made whole again. But all he could do was hold on and wait for James to finally push himself free of the grief and guilt that still entrapped him. All John could offer was a careful nudge every so often, with the right look, the right touch, the right words.

Inevitably, John was the first to speak again. "So who will you be? If not Flint and not McGraw, who are you now?"

James had arrived at the answer long before John had ever thought to ask. His words came quiet and measured. "I should like to be known as James Barlow."

John just nodded in reply. It was only fitting, he thought, as James had sacrificed so much of himself avenging the wrongs done to Thomas and Miranda, that when he was finally ready to open a chapter of his life not ruled by vengeance, he should dedicate his rebirth to their memory.

When the moment of solemnity had passed, and the quiet air between them felt light again, John's lips quirked and his eyes narrowed in unmistakable mischief. The right nudge at the right time, he mused. "Well then, Mr. Barlow-- are you really the sort of man to spend the whole of the afternoon with your mouth around a rum bottle?"

James raised an eyebrow. "What if I am?"

"Well, naturally, the choice is yours to make, but--" John leaned in close enough that his dangling curls brushed across James's bare chest, and whispered in his ear, "I can think of a few better things a man like you could be doing with his mouth..."

James shuddered at the breath on his skin and the sudden heat of John's body so near his own.

"Oh, you shit!" he growled fondly, grabbing a fistful of curls to press John's lips to his.

As John melted against him, his kisses wet and soft and fervent, James didn't even notice the rest of the rum spill out on the ground.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm torbeag on tumblr!


End file.
